NASA Image of the Day

Sunday, April 28, 2019

There were days - when I was very young and apologetic about feeling awkward with my womanly body - when substantial, or presence, or "robust" seemed words more appropriate to …..
Twiggy. I wanted to be Twiggy. Twiggy has to be explained to some girls...mostly blue collar, strangely. The other collars have to be coached to eat: the oddest dichotomy in a world of plenty in a veritable insanity of .
Reversed irony.

I grew into my breasts - the symbol and signatory mothering indictator, corporeally, of God;
bestowed upon woman with bodily inhibitor and functions tasked with
Continuance.

Eventually women learn that the size of them is irrelevant. Men learn this, too. This comes with a respect for the sacredness of the human body, as vessel, rather than an idea about its ideal.

Women spiritually and physically despise themselves when there is a meltdown in this area, as a result:
by default, programming - and an excruciating acknowledgement of a part of themselves dying, unknown, (though felt).

Its loss is wordless, faceless, and leaves a chasm - in miniature.

Nothing fills it: food, drink, toning, pummeling (by yourself and others), proper diet, getting over it, under it, on top of it, beside it, around it....you have an area of space that inhabits you, inside, afterwards. Space: as in.....elsewhere. You connect to all the universe, through loss and the reopening of yourself to Nothingness. Even when the loss is automatic, instantaneous, triggered, accidental, occidental, or expected....Space and You are One.

This is how I know that there is much beyond this life, and that there is God.

Beyond this Strange Pain, there is inexplicable Comfort that is internal balm, realized. Even when it is not your fault, you can Forgive
Your own
Imperfection, and "Gestational Retardation" - (as in, "the ability to do so" - a kinder accusation, recalled and uttered by what I now refer to as "The Deceased Causal Factor")
and Live.

There are those who love Space, too.. It is what is unseen that they love, and recognized, instinctively and inexpicably, when there is genuineness beyond the carbon-based urgings.

This, too, is from God: two splices of God, remelding. Many welders like this analogy.

Monday, April 8, 2019

"Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.
* And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day. *
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over by fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
Likewise also these filthy dreamers, defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation but said, "The Lord rebuke thee."
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Woe unto them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
..And Enoch, also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
To execute judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
And of some have compassion, making a difference:
And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

Revelations

Chapter 3 - V. 19
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent.

----------------

….and so, though Richard Dawkins would wax rhapsodic about the superstition that comes of religiousity stunting science, and all manner of winded remonstrations denuding a sense of the unseen, I would say this:

I would say that Elon Musk's efforts to create non-damaging vehicles, transportation systems, and the means by which we could transport our inferior efforts at energy production (i.e. nuclear waste and nuclear weapons, both of which could wipe out humanity, without depending upon the rock of the Canadian Shield to protect us from an accident, or leaching into the pristine salvation of our species - WATER ),much like the man, are efforts to be supported and valued greatly, along with his very driven sense of courage and humility. Noah was very much like Elon Musk.

But I would say this, too, notwithstanding the caution about "abandoning that first estate" - firstly, that "first estate" being the Garden of the Earth, literally and corporeally, and secondly, on an intimate scale, that "estate", or state of being, being our own bodies, as God-given bodily vessels - either through false spiritism, the lure of Artificial intelligence and enhancement, or supplanted robotics or cloning, as part of a calculated, and innately deeply distorted disrespect for the shell that houses our spirit: it has been proven by our own Astronauts that prolonged time in Space away from the celestial Garden that is our home as a Species, has detrimental and degrading effects. I believe that Space exploration - including journeying to Mars - and other uses for the Moon, particularly as a practical and logical venue for the disposal and movement of nuclear and toxic waste out of our immediate environment - waste which we have neither the time, nor the intelligence to dispose of properly before it kills us, until such time as we are bright enough to recycle our "creative stupidity" - is both a useful, and helpful exercise and effort by some of the Brightest Minds of our time, and it may just save our Species.

I do not, however, think that, by default, it precludes a deep sense of responsibility for reviewing our role as Caretakers of the Earth, having been supplanted here by that same Creator, and charged with that responsibility. If the same sense of concerted effort were put forth to recycle plastic waste into affordable dwellings in the third world, we would have no slums in India, or barrios in South America.....so there has to be somewhat of a shared focus, here, working in tandem.

Thus, it is with a deep sense of caution that I consider the casual pursuit of these, as "the dalliances of empowered and enabled Men", both financially and intellectually, without proper purpose, or a misplaced sense of both purpose and priority, in the doing. But that is where you and I come in.

Not one to deter, degrade or delay the seeking Mind, in its pursuit of making use of innate capacity, capability wise, it is an old saying, but a good one, which might well guide the situation: "It is always wise to get one's house in order."
…. And our "house" needs some serious work, lest the plumbing, the garden, the crops and the living - both animal and human - are lost in a potential furnace, figuratively, literally, and socio-politically speaking, into which we seem perpetually ready to contribute an endless supply of fodder - starting with ourselves.

….... As he said in an interview in Dubai to representatives of the UAE, he foresees a future where there will be very few jobs that a "robot couldn't do better."

What might save us all, then, is a new kind of corporate ethos and model - indeed, which also embraces and rewards a standard in production and operation which embraces - not detracts - from the sustaining recognition of the VALUE OF the presence of humanity, and the edifices and devices which support and encourage our furthered - not replaced - existence.

It is a new kind of "capital growth": one which challenges the creative force to INCLUDE, instead of REPLACE humankind in the face of massive profit. As Dofasco says, "our product is steel: our strength is people." Those words, as a steel-city girl, still ring in my ears, like the sight of my father, my uncles, and those "firm lunch box men" file out of the plants whose profits hinged upon the sweat of those men.

It is the kind of investing that ensures that new ventures also INVOLVE and SUSTAIN a human workforce, and ensures that automation AUGMENTS the human capacity in any scenario, without replacing it. This is our gift to each other, as human beings, and - in terms of ethics - as I once discussed with a community college colleague - insists upon, in terms of its ability to keep pace with science and technology.

What we "are capable of doing", and what we "actually do" are tempered - albeit with a deep sensibility that comes from these ethics , and, as Wordsworth says, an ability to "see into the life of things" - with our deep, renewed, and quieted and somewhat humbled respect for OURSELVES, and human life itself, beyond excessive wealth without conscience, poverty, and disease.

This simply does not preclude the capitalist mode; indeed, it challenges it anew.

However, it sets clear priorities, too: challenge, change and OPPORTUNITY.

Including human beings in the model is part of that "challenge of tomorrow": there is no reason - nor any excuse, therefore - for a world where the disabled are not "enabled", by means of the same technology that brought us the brilliant mind of Stephen Hawking in a failing human shell, for as long as natural form, and supportive technology, was able to grant to him a comfortable, challenging, capable, and deeply meaningful, existence. This is quite a shift from the current attitude about how technology is pushing us, in the workplace - and how we are letting it do so.....right out of the picture.

Although I balk at the idea that humanity must become a "sustained and supersocialist" model, if we begin to recognize that we ARE worth saving, perhaps in discussing it, in earnest terms, and with a heretofore unchastised knowledge of life and death, as we battle E-bola, Aids, hunger, poverty, and pollution, it is a very different species that sets out, refreshed and ready to "do business differently.
I have great hope that with this shared earnestness, and our renewed respect for each other, and our selves, we will begin to do just that - starting with our Greatest Minds.

No Cyborgs, just yet, my dear Elon. There is dancing to do....perhaps TO the stars, as well as with.....smile. Perhaps the ancestors will reach beyond watching over us, and "reach out and touch the face of God" - by means of the very technology with which we seek such an earnest connection, and which artists have dreamed of for centuries. Now THAT would be some Da Vinci code.

About Me

This author's book, "Rock Woman at Rest" is available at iuniverse.com, Sarnia, Ontario, "Cheeky Monkey Records", downtown Sarnia, and "The Stardust Lounge Bookstore", Sarnia, Ontario...and from the author, signed. "Poems from Butterscotch Cottage" available at iuniverse.com, "Cheeky Monkey Records", downtown Sarnia, and via the author, signed...
"Poems from Butterscotch Cottage" available through Xlibris.com bookstore, in person at "The Petrolia Bookstore", Petrolia, Ontario, "The Cheeky Monkey" records, downtown Sarnia, and from the author, signed with a personal message, if buying as a gift.
Both are available on loan from the Lambton County Library system, if you would like to read them for free, and can't afford your own copy.
Visit and sing along with her to "Throw Another Log on the Fire" at http://www.reverbnation.com/dawnmnevills#1
Original artwork for sale at http://www.ButterscotchCottage.vpweb.ca,
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DawnMNevills
or this website.
Contact:
DawnMNevills@butterscotchcottage.vpweb.ca
or
duty@brktel.on.ca
or
dawnmnevills@myspace.com
or
DawnMNevills@yahoo.com.ph